Huffington Magazine Issue 68 | Page 11

Enter mostly been dispensed by anonymous sources. “He’s a joke, plain and simple,” said one “senior GOP aide.” Another House GOP aide told the National Review Online that “Nancy Pelosi is more wellliked around here.” One of Cruz’s fellow Republicans who has been brave enough to attach his name to his remarks is Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who told reporters that Cruz was a “fraud” who should “no longer have any influence in the Republican Party.” As CNN reported, King continued like so: “We can’t be going off on these false missions that Ted Cruz wants us to go on. The issues are too important. They’re too serious, they require real conservative solutions, not cheap headlinehunting schemes,” he said. But where is all this coming from? It’s actually pretty much high school-level clique-histrionics, actually. And more than anything else, it’s a battle between the House and the Senate over who will be left holding the Defund Obamacare Futility Bomb when it finally goes off. Obviously, just about every GOP legislator, given the opportunity, would defund Obamacare tomor- LOOKING FORWARD IN ANGST HUFFINGTON 09.29.13 row if there was a possibility they could do so. And, in fact, they’ve tried some 40-odd times. One might question whether doing so is good policy, but none should question the desire of Republican policymakers to gut President Barack Obama’s landmark achievement. The thing is, though, Cruz sort of did. Cruz was one of the GOP leaders who first hatched the plan to threaten taking the government ‘He’s a joke, plain and simple,’ said one ‘senior GOP aide.’ Another House GOP aide told the National Review Online that ‘Nancy Pelosi is more well-liked around here.’” hostage over Obamacare. Birthing that notion immediately gave House Speaker John Boehner (ROhio) — whose preference is to avoid a government shutdown — a huge migraine. But Cruz didn’t stop there. He appeared in ads for the Senate Conservatives Fund, haranguing his fellow senators “to stand up and defund Obamacare now.” As Jackie Kucinich noted, the fact that he did so while simultaneously serving as the vice